Investigative Judgment
Pg.4

Evaluation of the Seventh-day Adventist doctrine of
The Investigative Judgment and
The Cleansing of the Heavenly Sanctuary

This doctrine has been both the foundation and the central pillar of the advent faith from its inception26 and it remains the central pillar and problem, not only of SDA theology, but also of its history, ethics and religious experience. The following points could be greatly expanded but the careful reader searching for truth will find more than enough evidence to show that this doctrine should be rejected and openly renounced as unscriptural and contrary to the gospel that was once for all delivered to the saints.

1. There may be some Adventists who say this is not the enteral pillar of Adventism. However, it is. Ellen White said, “The scripture which above all others had been both the foundation and central pillar of the Advent faith was the declaration, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed” The Great Controversy, p. 409 (1911). A recent book on the topic of the Sanctuary by Dr. Roy Adams is subtitled “Understanding the Heart of Adventist Theology.”27 The Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, 2001, is entitled, “Pillars of Our Faith”. It includes chapters on “The Sabbath”, “The Heavenly Sanctuary”, “The Hour of God’s Judgment”, “The Remnant, etc. The last two presidents of the General Conference have both expressed publically that the Adventist church will not change it historical doctrines, especially the doctrine of the Heavenly Sanctuary.

2. This teaching is built on 22 linking assumptions, 14 of the 22 are contrary to fact and the other 8 cannot be proved.

3. This doctrine ignores the context of Daniel 8. As the late Dr. Raymond Cottrell, Adventism’s top Hebrew scholar stated, to get Adventist theology out of Daniel 8:14 one either has to completely ignore the context or one has to make Christ the wicked little horn mentioned in the prophecy. There are no other options as the top secret committee of Adventist scholars found in their five year study that left no minutes!28

4. This teaching denies Christ’s finished atonement at the cross. In fact, the original form of this teaching, that Ellen White endorsed, stated that no atonement was made at the cross.29 If the atonement was finished at the cross then this foundation and central pillar of Adventism is dead
wrong.

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Footnotes
26
“The scripture which above all others had been both the foundation and the central pillar of the advent faith was the declaration: ‘Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.’ Daniel 8:14.”
Ellen White, The Great Controversy, p. 409. See also Spirit of Prophecy, Vol. 4, p. 258. Note: this quotation by EGW was written in 1911 in the chapter “What is the Sanctuary?”
27
Roy Adams, The Sanctuary—Understanding the Heart of Adventist Theology, (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1993).
28
http://www.lifeassuranceministries.com/art.html, click Sanctuary Doctrine, Asset or Liability.
29
“If the atonement was made on Calvary, by whom was it made? The making of the atonement is the work of a Priest; but who officiated on Calvary? Roman soldiers and wicked Jews. The slaying of the victim was not making the atonement; the sinner slew the victim, Lev. 4:1- 4, 13-15, &c., after that the Priest took the blood and made the atonement. Lev. 4:5-12, 16 -21. Christ was the appointed High Priest to make the atonement, and he certainly could not have acted in that capacity till after his resurrection, and we have no record of his doing anything on earth after his resurrection, which could be called the atonement. The atonement was made in the Sanctuary, but Calvary was not such a place. He could not, according to Heb. 8:4, make the atonement while on earth, “If he were on earth, he should not be a Priest.” The Levitical was the earthly priesthood, the Divine, the heavenly. Therefore, he did not begin the work of making the atonement, whatever the nature of that work may be, till after his ascension, when by his own blood he entered his heavenly Sanctuary for us. Now put by the side of this text another on this point from his [Peter’s] discourse at the 9th hour of the same day, Ac. 3:19, “Repent ye therefore; and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”Everyone can see that the blotting out of sins does not take place at repentance and conversion; but follows and must of necessity be preceded by them. Repentance, conversion,
and baptism had then become imperative duties in the present tense; and when performed, those doing them “washed away” (Ac. 22:16,) remitted or sent away from them their sins. (Acts 2:28;) [(sic.) Acts 2:38] and of course are forgiven and have “received the atonement;” but they had not received it [the atonement] entire at that time, because their sins were not yet blotted out.… Quoted from O.R.L Crosier in the Day Star Extra, See Knight, Rise of Sabbatarian Adventism, p. 126. Of Crosier’s theology, Ellen White said, “I feel fully authorized by the Lord to recommend that Extra to every saint.” See Word to the Little Flock, p. 13.

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